silver queen or candy?

my family and i froze corn yesterday like our lives depended on it. we put up 40 packs in a little over two hours... the power of twelve hands, yeah baby :) we freeze corn old school style. my grandparents and uncle have a huge farm where they grow all kinds of "real" foods *g-ma swears the stuff in the store isn't real :) and in her defense, there is something special in the food when you know you pulled it... and can still taste the dirt! i am still trying to figure out if that taste comes from the food in question or the smell of my clean, yet dirty, hands :)* we pull and freeze our own corn every year. it is almost ritualistic. we all have our assigned duties and tasks... it is a beautiful process.

maybe i think it is beautiful because i am not "allowed" to go into the corn fields to pull- i am allergic to it... just the silks, not the kernels. *found out at a young age (benadryl, oatmeal bath, and inside the rest of the day) which is good times when you're six... wink, wink* but anyway, mom and g-ma are the pullers... mom is the hacker... the sisters are the silkers... dad is the blancher and keeper of the cooler... and i *stepping into the spotlight* i am the cutter. i won't say that my job is more important than the rest of the team, but...

while we were doing all of that, an older lady came to fish in the catfish pond behind my g-ma's house. she and her son had braved the morning traffic of the city to escape to what was once the country. g-ma and the lady talked like they had known each other forever (g-ma confessed later she couldn't decide if her name was mary or louise, but his name was percy... unless it was quincy) "this is my daughter and her family- they're from out towards charlotte"... "oh, i had been sitting in the nursing home with a lady whose son stays out that way. y'all know him?"... as she proceeded to tell us about him we smiled and said no... she kept talking about her family, and so did g-ma... the lady finally said she had to go see about some fish... and we wished her the best of luck and turned our heads back to the matter at hand... and i smiled

but it made me sad... i wonder if my children *largely hypothetical at this point* will ever experience that. two almost strangers carrying on a genuine conversation because they share so much culturally... freezing corn grown by family on family land... fishing in a pond that has been in the family for generations beyond my great-grandparents. will my *still hypothetical* children have to drive and pay to fish like this lady and her son?

and deep in my heart i know the answers to all of these questions. the new highway is getting ready to come through the land... subdivisions will be claiming the pastures and fields my maternal family once worked and loved. the backdrop of the majority of my childhood memories will be dramatically altered to make life easier for those who work in a very different way for their food...

there is something important that is disappearing... and it isn't just the corn.